May 12, 2009

Two Staff Lawyers Move Up on Senate Judiciary

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have promoted from within to fill staff vacancies created when two committee lawyers moved to the Office of White House Counsel.

Aaron Cooper is now senior counsel for intellectual property and antitrust, a portfolio previously held by Susan Davies, now an associate counsel in the White House. Cooper has worked on Capitol Hill since 2005, first as a legal counsel to then-Senator Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., and most recently as a counsel to the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. He previously was an associate at Covington & Burling’s D.C. office.

Zulima Espinel is now senior counsel for national security, a portfolio that Mary DeRosa previously held. DeRosa was named in January as deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs and legal adviser to the National Security Council. Espinel had been a counsel for the Judiciary Committee’s Democrats since 2007, and she previously had been an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia since 2003.

Both positions have high profiles. Congress is considering the most significant overhaul of patent laws in decades, and later this year it will take up several provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire.